To Love At All Is To Be Vulnerable

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
- C.S. Lewis

By far, one of my all time favorite quotes, and to it I owe much thanks because in remembering that joy of salvation that we were reminded of yesterday, this quote was one that broke me down in a lot of ways. It reminded me of the mere fact that "to love at all, is to be vulnerable." Otherwise, the other option that C.S.Lewis so cleverly states, is we bind ourselves and our hearts up to the point where we will not be broken, however, that creates in us a dark, impenetrable, & irredeemable soul.

Before knowing Him - I had no idea what love was and bound myself up exactly as C.S.Lewis stated. But now, now we have the joy of salvation, the joy of love, the joy of Christ in our hearts and our lives.

Joy of Salvation

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

- Isaiah 55:12 -

- Betsy

The Painful Longing of God

It was a summer afternoon. I was sitting in a park feeling particularly discouraged and miserable. I decided to pull out my prayer book that contains written prayers that are woven together with many Bible verses. I started to read out loud one of my favorites: the characteristics of Father God that is in agreement with 1 Corinthians 13:4~8: Father God is patient with me. Father God does not see me as someone He can easily manipulate and control. Father God does not look down at me just to prove how important He is. Father God is slow to get angry with me...

As I was reading it out loud, I noticed a man sitting on the bench next to mine. He was probably in his mid-40 looking like a college frat boy: jeans with holes, muscle shirt, spiky hair, earrings and tattoos. He was listening to what I was reciting.

After I finished reading, I looked at him and I could sense that he wanted to look my way as well. Instead, he got up and walked away. As I watched the back of this man, a sense of painful longing stuck my heart. I felt the Father heart for him. It was probably only a small fraction of God’s longing for the lost, but it was already overwhelming for my tiny heart. Father God’s painful and furious longing for the lost is so unbearably overwhelming, yet at the same time terribly addictive. I guess it is addictive because we are made for God. When we identify ourselves with the love, sorrow, joy, righteous anger of God and die to our own, a part of us becomes alive. It “activates” the eternal life in us and that is to know God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). My prayer is that I will not be motivated by guilt or pride when I reach out to the lost, but rather by the love and longing of God that drove Himself to send His one and only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world, so that we may be with Him forever and ever.

- Wendy

Spontaneous

Worship is born out of the deepest recesses of our heart. If your heart is grateful towards God for all He has done for you and for who He is then you will not be able to contain the love within your heart. The Bible says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Paul says the love of Christ compels him. Some of the best songs I have gotten is when I didn't plan anything out. I come before God just as I am but in humility knowing that whatever I am today is because of Him. It doesn't matter whether you sound good, whether you can play the guitar or the piano. What matters is your sincerity /whether or not you are genuine. He receives what you offer Him as long as you offer it in humility and with a pure heart. This morning Jincy and I spent some time in worship and this song was born out of our time before the Lord. I felt compelled to share it with you so you would be encouraged. However I have not yet figured out how to post a video on here. So as soon as I can find someone to help me with that I shall get to it :D When I do put it up, please focus on the words and hopefully this will push you to seek God more in your own time with Him and give you some freedom in your time of worship. I love you guys

-Lisa

Tomas

hes got the whole world..

Truth is a Person

To fulfill a class requirement, my friends and I spent 3 weekends visiting different religious sites and interviewing people of different faiths. Nothing made me more uncomfortable than the afternoon when we interviewed a witch, an angel interpreter and a new age practitioner. I was angry and irritated by what they had to say. Then I realized: without God’s grace, I was basically listening to myself talk!

Many Christians (including me) have the tendency to “demonize” non-believers and see people of other faiths as “incarnations” of their belief systems. When we see the lost as people we need to fix rather than human beings just like us who desperately need God’s grace, we have already lost the battle of winning their hearts.

People have to feel that they belong before they can believe. We must share more than just our beliefs with the lost. We must share our lives with them. We must not only preach the Gospel with our lips. We must live the Gospel with our lives.

What is the Gospel? That Christ, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, but humbled Himself and took on human likeness, became obedient to death on a cross. (Philippians 2: 6-8)

We have to be careful not to let our knowledge of Bible or our experiences with God puff us up that we refuse to listen to, hang out with, love on those who are different. The Gospel we preach is NOT that people have to change to be just like us in order to be accepted by God. That is heresy! The Message we preach is Christ Jesus and the only way for people to change is through encounters with God’s love. For truth is not just a theory, truth is a Person.

- Wendy

He Lives In Me!

The sweet Psalmist of Israel said, " The secret of the LORD is with them that Fear Him; and he will show them His Covenant." -Psalm 25:14
One of the greatest truths in the New Covenant I have come to know is the Indwelling Power of the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel John chapter 14, Jesus says, "“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you....Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
It should be the goal of every Christian that Christ be manifested in Me. Apostle Paul says in Galatians 4:19 that he travails like a mother giving birth until Christ be formed in You.

In the old testament the manifestations of God was External manifestations In the old testament where you see the "Angel of the LORD", most commentators say that's the Pre-Incarnate Christ. And when you began to see Christ in every line of scripture, the bible will begin to come alive to us.If you have time, check out these three passages Genesis 18, Exodus 3, and Daniel 3." And ask the Holy Spirit to Unveil to you the Work and appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. We see that in the Old Testament the manifestation of Christ is outside like in a pillar of cloud ,burning bush, or as a Angel of the LORD but in the New Testament, the manifestation is not out their, its in our lives! Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:27-"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Hallelujah! Thanks Be to God! This is a mystery that was not even revealed to Moses, King David, and everyone else in the Old testament. Thats the greatest Gift, Christ In me the Hope of Glory! Not in my strength, but in His Strength.
How can we lay hold of this Truth? GIVE PLACE TO THE KING IN OUR LIVES!
Have a heart like this, " Whatever you want, Change it
Speak a word and I will do it
You want a snack, I'll go get it!" lol :)
I cant even began to fathom what God is able to do if each and everyone on of us as a community lay hold of this simple truth!
-Tom

Purify My Heart

1 John 3:2-3 (ESV)

2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

When gold is refined in fire, it is relieved of everything that it is not. All it's impurities are surfaced, separated, and scrapped, until it's luster is pure. Eternal life is to be with Jesus, and when we see Him, we shall be made like Him. If that is really our hope, it would only make sense that we actively work towards making ourselves pure here on earth. 

(1 Thessalonians 4:7) Chances are, all of us are being refined by fire, in some way or another. Sure it's painful, sure it's not pretty, but if the end result is being with our beautiful Savior Jesus, and being made like Him, then it is priceless. 

Let's keep our eyes on the prize, and keep running.

-jayson

You must ask the right question :)

God, why aren't you speaking to me?

God is always speaking to us ...

the question is ...

are we listening??

-Lisa

Season 3

I cannot be in the same place I am now. I need to be freed. Father let me look at this letter in 15 weeks and laugh at where I was and smile with joy. I believe it will happen.

Sincerely, Ben Thomas

Last night after ((BibleTalk)), I came home, got ready for the night, jumped in bed, and pulled out the letter I wrote for the time capsule out of my bag. My heart melted as I started reading the letter I had written to myself 15 weeks ago. Every single thing I had been struggling with had been overcome, every single thing I was worried about or had a question about was answered, every issue I had stated in that letter was addressed.

And a single tear rolled down my cheek as I realized where I was 15 weeks ago as opposed to now.

Those first two sentences of this post were the last two lines of my letter. I’m sharing them with you as a testimony of God’s faithfulness when you simply believe. As I read that letter that I had completely forgotten about, I did laugh, I did smile with joy.

Welcome to the new blog, welcome to the new year, welcome to the new season.

This is your new blog, This is your new year, This is your new season.

Like Hap mentioned yesterday, there’s a lot of new changes and direction with this year, and we hope you welcome it. I hope you as excited as we are.

Let’s smile when we read those letters 15 weeks from now.

In fact, we will smile when we read those letters 15 weeks from now.

Welcome to season 3

- Ben Thomas